Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project

9 Institutional Arrangements and Capacity Development1. List of various key institutions and their roles and responsibilities for implementation of EMMP aregiven in Annex 9-1. A detailed profile of these institutions is given in the following sections.9.1 Profile of Key Institutions9.1.1 Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA)2. Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), established in 1995 as Jamuna Multipurpose BridgeAuthority, is responsible for (according to its Act, as amended on November 23, 1998):Plan, design, construct and maintain: (i) bridges of 1,500 meters or more; (ii) flyovers,(iii) toll roads, (iv) elevated expressways, and (v) causeways;Charge tolls for the facilities it constructs; andPromote private public participation (PPP) in these facilities.3. BBA is the technical as well as administrate arm of the ‘Bridges Division’ of the Ministry ofCommunication (MOC), which is responsible for planning, construction and maintenance of regionaland national roads, railway and bridge infrastructures in the Country. ‘Roads and Highway Division’and ‘Railway Division’ are the two other divisions of the ministry to carry out these activities.4. BBA has so far completed the following activities since its existence: Construction, operation and maintenance of the Jamuna Bridge: completed veryefficiently; highly successful. Facilitating construction of the Mukhterpur bridge that was financially assisted, designedand built by the Chinese government Completed feasibility study for the proposed Padma bridge with ADB/JICA support;detailed design preparation is currently in progress with ADB support5. BBA is headed by an Executive Director (ED) of the rank of a Secretary to the Governmentappointed from among the ranks of senior civil servants. There are four departments under the ED: (i)Engineering Department with three divisions: Roads and Bridges, River Training Works, and otherworks (ii) Administrative Department; (iii) Planning Programming and Monitoring; (iv) Finance andAccounting. In addition, a special Project office (Project Implementation Unit, PIU) has been set up tohandle the preparation (and in the future, implementation) of the proposed Padma Bridge project, alsoreporting to the ED.9.1.2 Need for Institutional Strengthening of BBA6. Presently, BBA has no permanent Environmental Unit (EU) within the BBA. Generally, shortterm EU’s are established within the project implementation units created for projects undertaken byBBA. The staffs are deputed from other departments. After completion of these projects, the staffs oftemporary EU return to their parent department. Currently BBA has no staff with previous experiencein implementing environmental management and monitoring.7. Generally, BBA outsource key services to organization well-suited to the conditions inBangladesh.8. Further, there are some HR issues - that the managers (down to the Deputy Director level) ofBBA who are appointed on deputation from other government departments, are not dedicated workersas they do not tend to see BBA as their own department and secondly gets transferred within 2-3years.9. Presently a program on institutional strengthening of BBA is being developed by the advisors ofBBA.9-2